What’s Happening?

Shane Van Gisbergen is seeing changes to his team in his first full-time NASCAR season. Rumors about a Crew Chief change swirled last week and were confirmed with Monday’s entry list for Michigan International Speedway.

• V8 Supercars legend Shane Van Gisbergen burst onto the NASCAR scene last season, winning his first race in the Cup Series at the Chicago Street Circuit for Trackhouse Racing. After last season, Van Gisbergen left V8 Supercars to go full-time and part-time with Kaulig Racing in the Xfinity and Cup Series this season.
• His 2023 Xfinity campaign has resulted in three wins, all on road courses and with Crew Chief Bruce Schlicker. However, after Indianapolis, Schlicker was replaced by Kevin Walter, Crew Chief for teammate Josh Williams.

A new world of tracks

Three wins may make fans ask, why such a sudden shift?

Bruce Schlicker is a good Crew Chief; it’s that simple. A ten-time race winner, including a standout 2022 season with AJ Allmendinger. That season, the pair won five races and had an average finish of 6.6.

Marcos Ambrose set the bar for a V8 Supercars driver entering NASCAR. A Supercars champion in his own right, in almost one decade in NASCAR, Ambrose dominated on road courses, but on ovals, he would run mid-pack, scoring ten career top fives in 227 starts.

While some could put this on the quality of Ambrose’s car, a similar label has been placed on Juan Pablo Montoya, who had a similar career on Road Courses and showed minimal success on ovals, however, in slightly better equipment than his Australian counterpart.

Schlicker looked like a good fit for a driver like Van Gisbergen. As Schlicker helped Allmendinger, known for his Road Course mastery, to that legendary 2022 campaign.

Circling Troubles?

Van Gisbergen’s five top-fives this season include his three wins on road courses. That leaves just two top-fives on ovals, those at the drafting track of Atlanta Motor Speedway and in the most recent race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Experience could be to blame, as Van Gisbergen had just one start on an oval before this season, a 19th-place outing in the Truck Series at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park last season.

When a driver performs poorly, some blame the driver, while others blame the crew chief. The latter happens, especially when there is a staffing change.

Despite that, this personnel change is not performance-related; as Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports reported on X, it was Schlicker’s decision.

While the stats could have been better on ovals, Schlicker and Van Gisbergen’s outings may need to be examined through a different lens.

Van Gisbergen has most notably, yet quietly, improved his qualifying position in nine of 16 oval races this season. He now has a 15.2 average finish compared to his 16.9 average starting position.

This makes him one of two drivers in the top 15 of the Xfinity Series standings to have a better average finish than start, joining Ryan Sieg as the only other driver to do so.

As the book closes on Schlicker and Van Gisbergen’s time, the two may have benefited from more practice on race weekends and more time in the car. Whether or not it was apparent they had speed during oval races. Now with Kevin Walter on the box, Van Gisbergen hopes to harness and carry that into the playoffs.

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